1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networking and files.
2. Background Art
Personal computers and mobile devices require specific applications to create and edit a variety of file types. These types of files can include, but are not limited to, documents, spreadsheets, presentation slides, pictures, web documents, audio files or video files. Some files are more specialized and thus require more specialized applications. The applications required to edit each of these files have increased in number, size and complexity. The operating systems required to run these applications have also increased in size. This has resulted in a greater need for processing power and memory, which is a particular concern for designers and users of smaller computers and mobile devices.
In a common conventional approach, the creation and modification of these files takes place locally, that is, on a computing device such as a client device which may or may not be connected to a network. An operating system of the local device manages these files so that they can be represented in a directory folder and associated with a file identifier or icon. Each file is also associated with a local application that can be used to modify the file. This local application resides on the local device and uses the local operating system. The operating system may associate a file with a local application based on the file extension or on information about the type of file.
To view or edit a document, a user can open the file by using the menu of its associated local application or by selecting its file identifier or icon. If the user double-clicks on the file identifier, the operating system opens the file in the local application that is associated with the file. If a user wants to create a file, the user opens the local application associated with that type of file and proceeds to create a new file. It is common to have several files, possibly of different types, open at a time. The user then proceeds to view or edit one or more files. When the user closes a file or exits an application, the file and its corresponding file identifier are saved on the local device.
The user can also save the file on a network drive or on a different computer. Network file systems can provide for a file to be stored on the local client, a server, or a storage device. Sometimes files may be distributed across a number of network drives or servers. Nevertheless, the files are opened and edited in the local application on the local client or computer. Any temporary files that the operating system creates for the file are also local.
Some files may be opened in another application, such as in a web browser. These files are identified as being linked to another file on the network through a uniform resource locator (URL). However, these files are merely webpages, or files edited and stored by the owner of the website. If a user does edit something through a web browser, it is usually in an email, a blog or the content of a personal web space. Such files are stored on a network server but are only accessible by navigating the Internet to get to the email account or personal web space. Such files are not directly associated with a file directory on the local device. They are separate and apart from the files in the local file directory. As for the files which are in the local directory, they require the local application's functionality. But, as mentioned earlier, these local applications and the operating systems that house them continue to increase in size and complexity. They also require periodic updates.
Some processing work and applications are being moved from the local device to servers on a network. The Google Docs service, at the present time, is a web-based word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation service available from Google, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. that makes collaboration more efficient. Among other things, it lets a user keep a document online so that it can be edited from any internet-connected computer. A user can create new documents or start from an existing file saved on his or her local computer by uploading the document and picking up where he or she left off. Each revision is automatically saved online. To work on documents offline or distribute them as attachments, a user may save a copy of the Google file to his local computer in the format that works best for him. In addition, the user can view his online files in a directory structure from a central webpage.
However, these online files are not associated with a local file or local file identifier over the network. For a local file to be copied to the network, it has to be affirmatively uploaded from a webpage. Any online files remain online unless affirmatively saved by the user on the local computer as a local file. Once saved as a local file, the file is not electronically associated with the online application and is indistinguishable from other files on the local directory. If a user selects this local file, it is opened in the local application without any apparent link to the remote application it may have come from. If any changes are made to the local file, it is out of sync with the online file of the same name.